Portland Police Officers Ordered To Remove Facebook posts With ‘I AM DARREN WILSON’ Over Their Badge
Portland police Chief Mike Reese has ordered several officers who posted images of the Police Bureau’s badge covered with the words “I AM DARREN WILSON,” on their Facebook pages to take them down on Monday.
[su_center_ad]”The image displayed does not represent this organization and was very inflammatory in nature,” Reese said in a statement Monday morning, according to Oregon Live. “Officers certainly have a right to have and express their opinions but not using an official badge of the Portland Police Bureau. The badge represents all members of the organization, past and present, and is an important symbol in our community that must not be tarnished. I’ve asked the Professional Standards Division to review this matter for possible policy violations.”
There were at least three officers who had posted the images in support of Darren Wilson on their Facebook pages, and each received quite a few ‘likes’ mostly by fellow police officers.
Activists shared them on social media, including Twitter.
Oregon Live reports:
They included Officers Rich Storm, Rob Blanck and Kris Barber. As of 12:36 p.m., Storm still had his badget post on his page, which drew ‘likes’ from 30 others, many of whom are Portland police officers.
Michael Klepfer, who describes himself as a freelance writer, sent an image of one officer’s Facebook page to The Oregonian Monday morning, with the message, “This is their outreach. We know what they think.”
The officers’ actions came on the heels of the police force assigning a commander to reach out to community groups to ensure peaceful demonstrations after the highly anticipated grand jury ruling of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, is announced.
Mayor Charlie Hales issued a statement which read in part, “We learned this morning that three officers altered images of the official Portland Police Bureau badge. Chief Reese did the right thing by immediately ordering the officers to remove these symbols, and by ordering Professional Standards Division to review this matter for possible policy violations.”
“We have been actively participating in collaborative dialogue with community leaders and other Portlanders on issues of police and community relations,” the statement continued. “Recently, police participated in specific dialog related to possible reactions to the upcoming release of a verdict from the grand jury in Ferguson, Mo.”
“The actions taken by these three officers here in Portland do not help get us to that goal.”
Officer Rich Storm, one of the aforementioned officers who took part in the Facebook posts, was one of the officers identified by the U.S. Department of Justice in its 2012 investigation, which the agency said showed the bureau’s pattern of excessive or inappropriate force.[su_csky_ad]
M D Reese November 24th, 2014 at 5:21 pm
Anonymous should see if they are also KKK members.
Spirit of America November 24th, 2014 at 6:44 pm
Yea, great group…
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/tangodown-anonymous-close-cleveland-city-govt-website-12yo-shooting-death/
innocent citizens of cleveland had their services taken away…
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker November 24th, 2014 at 5:26 pm
I never understood the ” I Am Darren Wilson” tag line. No report was filed, no investigation was done and evidence was compromised through police inaction and deliberate actions.
It’s like saying “I gun down unarmed teenagers because I’m a scardy cat with
Anomaly 100 November 24th, 2014 at 6:05 pm
This ^
Tommy6860 November 24th, 2014 at 6:16 pm
Then maybe the good cops should wear tags on their badges saying “I Am Dawon Gore”. The racists have not much to worry about confronting the disadvantaged when it seem the racist police support their cause.
BlackInMass November 24th, 2014 at 5:40 pm
All of those sworn to uphold the law,should be fired for their bigotry!
All of those cowards should join the Girl Scouts,
no one would mind what they complain about or post!
Great call Chief Reese!
tracey marie November 24th, 2014 at 5:46 pm
the police are like the disfunctional family that protects the killer/rapist/robber in the family
Republicans_are_Evil November 24th, 2014 at 5:53 pm
If those police officers think they are Darren Wilson, then they should be fired just as much as Darren Wilson should be fired.
R J November 24th, 2014 at 5:59 pm
The message they are sending is that they believe that the police have to right to murder black people in America and get away with it..
Spirit of America November 24th, 2014 at 6:41 pm
That’s not fair. If some are allowed to make judgements before the facts are known, all are allowed to.
Some folks are calling the cop a racist murderer, before the facts are in.
That is wrong.
Some folks are saying it was a good shooting.
That is wrong.
You can not endorse bad behavior for some but not for all.
No one should be taking ‘sides’ until the facts are known and looked at.
BlackInMass November 29th, 2014 at 5:13 pm
Russian
media has used
Ferguson as a tool to criticize America, with one Web site labeling Ferguson’s
crisis as “AfroMaidan” back in August (a reference to
Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests) and saying that Americans
have “prejudice towards African Americans … in their blood.”
“The conflict in Ferguson isn’t momentary, but deep,” Alexander Khristenko
reported on state-run
television channel Russia 24 on Tuesday. “Race relations, social
inequality, the black ghetto – a fragile world that had faith in at least some
kind of justice, it appears, has finally collapsed.”